U.n. Drags Feet On Emigration Of Amer-asians, Critics Say

October 28, 1985|By Newsday

WASHINGTON — Vietnam's challenge to the United States to take in all the Amer-Asian childen within a month is unlikely to result in any faster procedures to bring the thousands of children fathered by American servicemen to the United States, congressional critics say.

The State Department says the present system has brought more Amer-Asians over than ever before and that working through the United Nations is the best way to deal with a country with which the United States has no relations.

But congressional critics say the procedure is too slow, and private charities should be allowed to bring the children out.

''There are problems on both sides that are causing the delays. Both sides blame each other,'' said John Behan, a Republican New York state assemblyman and Vietnam veteran. It was Behan who, on a recent trip to Hanoi, was challenged by Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach to take the children.

In response to the Vietnamese offer, the State Department said it will continue to accept the children and their families through the Orderly Departure Program, run by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees.

''This has the approval of not only the U.S. Congress and the public, but also most of the private voluntary organizations involved in refugee resettlement work,'' said State Department spokesman Ken Bailes.

But Rep. Stewart McKinney, R-Conn., who sponsored a 1982 law to ease emigration of Amer-Asians from Southeast Asia, disagrees with the sole use of the U.N. program. ''Their way is cumbersome and slow. The proof is in the numbers,'' he said.